Cardinal Pediatrics is a proud supporter of ALL children. We hope these resources help parents support their children. If you ever have any questions, please remember that we are always here.
Please feel free to have email the pdfs to family and friends!
LGBTQIA+ Support and Advocacy Organizations
LOCAL Organizations
- Morgantown Parent Support Group (ALL ONLINE)
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- PFLAG Pittsburgh
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GLOBAL Organizations
● The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network mission is “Every student deserves a safe space” (http://www.glsen.org).
● Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) is a long-standing support and advocacy organization (http://community.pflag.org).
● The National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC) is a social justice organization that advocates for and with young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning in an effort to end discrimination against these youth and to ensure their physical and emotional well-being (http://www.nyacyouth.org).
● The Trevor Project (http://www.thetrevorproject.org) operates the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention hotline for sexual minority youth (866-4-U-TREVOR).
● Youth Resource is a Web site created by and for LGBTQ young people. Sponsored by Advocates for Youth, Youth Resource takes a holistic approach to sexual health and exploring issues of concern to LGBTQ youth, by providing information and offering support on sexual and reproductive health issues through education and advocacy (http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/youthresource)
● TransKids Purple Rainbow is a foundation that advocates and organizes events on behalf of transgender children (http://www.transkidspurplerainbow.org).
● The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Inc (WPATH). Formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc, WPATH is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity disorders (http://www.wpath.org).
● Transfamily provides support and education for transgender people, their families, friends, and significant others. The group is associated with PFLAG to bring awareness to school systems, through their principals and counselors, by offering literature, speakers, consultation, and support (http://www.transfamily.org)
● Family Acceptance Project (Marian Wright Education Institute–Resource for LGBTQ youth and families) (http://familyproject.sfsu.edu)
Guide to Common Terms
Sometimes your child may use terms that you don’t recognize to describe themselves or their friends. Here’s a quick reference.
Agender: denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a gender. A person who is agender can use any pronouns they see fit.
Androgynous: an expression of gender that is non-binary; and/or partly male and partly female in appearance.
Asexual: without sexual feelings or associations; asexual individuals may still experience attraction but this attraction doesn't need to be realized in any sexual manner.
Aromantic: feeling limited to no romantic attraction towards anyone (this does not mean the person feels no sexual attraction towards people, only that they would have no romantic feelings. This does not imply that aromantic people can not date, marry, or be in healthy relationships. They can, typically with less romantic -and more sexual- endeavors involved). Aromancy is a spectrum including aromantics, grayromantics, demiromantics, and more.
Assigned sex at birth: refers to the sex/gender at birth based on physical anatomy
Bisexual: sexually attracted not exclusively to people of one particular gender; attracted to both men and women. Identifying as bisexual does not indicate that partnered with any gender constitutes affiliation with gay or straight.
Cisgender: identifying with the sex assigned at birth. man and male assigned or female and female assigned
Gay: an umbrella term used to refer to the queer community or an individual identity for one who does not identify as heterosexual. Gay is as subjective as the term Queer and is a term used to describe a person who endures physical, romantic, and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex/gender; homosexual.
Genderqueer: is most commonly used to describe a person who feels that their gender identity does not fit into the socially constructed "norms" associated with their biological sex. Genderqueer people could feel like their gender is a combination of genders, neither man nor woman, moving between genders, third-gender, those who cannot place or put a name on their gender, or even that their gender is an overlap of other genders. It is up to the individual to know what it means to them.
Gender confirmation surgery: sex reassignment surgery, sometimes referred to as top surgery and/or bottom surgery.
Gender expression: the external display of one’s gender through socialization; may be measured of scales of masculinity/femininity. (a.k.a. gender presentation)
Gender Fluid: sexual identity and/or sexual orientation may change or shift and/or be a culmination of two or more identities/orientations.
Gay: an umbrella term used to refer to the queer community or as an individual identity for one who does not identify as heterosexual. Gay is as subjective as the term Queer, and is a term used to describe a person who endures physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex/gender
Genderqueer: is most commonly used to describe a person who feels that his/her gender identity does not fit into the socially constructed "norms" associated with his/her biological sex.
Gender confirmation surgery: sex reassignment surgery, sometimes referred to as top surgery and/or bottom surgery
Gender expression: external display of one’s gender through socialization; may be measured of scales of masculinity/femininity. (a.k.a. gender presentation)
Gender Fluid: denoting or relating to a person who does not identify themselves as having a fixed gender
Gender non-conforming: denoting or relating to a person whose behavior or appearance does not conform to prevailing cultural and social expectations about what is appropriate to their gender. Refers to people who do not follow other people’s ideas or stereotypes about how they should look or act based on the female or male sex they were assigned at birth
Gender normative: gender aligns with biological sex and one who identifies with that sex/gender.
Graysexual: feeling limited or rare sexual attraction, in other words feeling attraction to very low intensity.
Heterosexism: behaviors or mindset that grants preferential treatment to heterosexual people and reinforces the idea that heterosexuality or heteronormativity is better or more “right” than queerness; omits and excludes other sexualities.
Heterosexual: attraction towords the opposite sex; straight. It describes a man who feels sexual attraction towards only women or a woman who feels sexual attraction towards only men.
Intersex: those born with genital characteristics that mean they could not be classified as only male or female.
Lesbian: is a female who experiences romantic love or sexual attraction to other females.
LGBTQIA+: The acronym that renders an umbrella term used to describe the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, and Asexual/Ally community.
Neopronouns: pronouns not officially recognized in the English language, made with the intent to be gender-neutral. Some examples are xe/xem/xyr, ve/ver/vis, and ey/em/eirs.
Non-binary: someone whose gender does not fall under the binary genders of male or female. It can be an umbrella term (for all genders that are not binary [agender, genderqueer, etc.]) or its own gender identity.
Omnisexual: sexually attracted to all gender identities while still recognizing those identities. Commonly confused with pansexual, the difference is that pansexuals are seen as gender-blind, while omnisexuals are not. An example of omnisexuality is a person may have more of a sexual attraction towards women than any other gender, but they still have an attraction towards all genders. Pansexuals are seen as having the same intensity of attraction towards all genders.
Pansexual: is the sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pan means “all,” so pansexual people are attracted to all genders. It’s similar to bisexual in that pansexual individuals are attracted to more than one gender; however, they can feel attraction to male, female, intersexual, gender-queer, transsexual and other gender identities. For people who identify as pansexual, gender is not a limiting factor in attraction because they are attracted to people of any sex or gender.
Preferred Pronouns: are the pronouns that a person chooses to use for themselves. She, her, hers and he, him, his are the most commonly used pronouns
Polyamory/Polyamorous: consensual non-monogamous relationships, often referred to as open relationships. Some polyamorous relationships have a “primary” relationship and a “secondary” relationship.
Sexual Orientation: sexual, romantic, and/or physical attraction one feels towards others and how one identifies themselves
Trans/Transgender: a term covering a range of identities that alter the socially conditioned definitions of gender norms. A person whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.
Queer: an umbrella term for the LGBTQIA community. Queer can mean different things to everyone and does not encompass a clear and pronounce definition. A term for people of marginalized gender identities and sexual orientations who are not cisgender and/or heterosexual.
Romantic Orientation: indicates the gender/genders someone would be romantically involved with or be romantically attracted to. Commonly confused with sexual orientation, romantic orientation can be the same as one’s sexual orientation or different. Someone could be heterosexual but panromantic, meaning they would only have sexual intercourse with the opposite gender but could date/fall in love with someone of any gender.
Adapted from and added to: https://www.theplanningcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/abcs-of-lgbtq.pdf
Other sources: https://www.healthline.com/health/graysexual#:~:text=Graysexual%20%E2%80%94%20sometimes%20spelled%20greysexual%20%E2%80%94%20is,A%2C%20or%20gray%2Dace
https://intercultural.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/Neopronouns-Explained-UNCG-Intercultural-Engagement.pdf
https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/LGBTA_Wiki